DIDYNAMIA— GYMNOSPERMIA. Verbena. 71 



flesh-coloured, dotted with crimson. Whorls corr pound, stalked. 

 Cal, furrowed. Seeds smooth. 



286. VERBENA. Vervain. 



Linn. Gen. 14. Juss. 109. Fl.Br.608. Tourn.f.94. Lam. t. 17. 

 Gcertn. t. 66. 



Cal. tubular, angular, with 5 marginal teeth, one of them 

 rather shorter than the rest. Cor. unequal ; tube cylin- 

 drical, twice as long as the calyx, straight and slender in 

 the lower half, dilated and curved in the upper part ; 

 limb spreading, in .G deep, rounded, somewhat unequal 

 segments. Filmn. 4, in some species but 2, slendei', very 

 short, incurved, within the tube of the corolla. A?ith. 

 incumbent, each of 2 round lobes. Germ, superior, qua- 

 drangular. Sti/le slender, the length of the tube. Stigma 

 obtuse. Seeds 2 or 4, oblong, angular and roughish, en- 

 closed in one thin, membranous, evanescent pellicle. 



Most of the species having 4 stamens, 2 long and 2 short, 

 this genus is more commodiously placed here than in 

 Diandria, where Linnaeus introduces it. The covering 

 of the seeds is a real pellicle, not a pericarp, which is 

 evinced by the whole structure of the genus, and its evi- 

 dent affinity to the rest of the Didynamia Gi/mnospermia, 

 not at all to the Afigiospermia. This pellicle is similar 

 to that of Chenopodium, see vol. ii. 9 ; and Grammar 26. 



Herbaceous, rarely shrubby. Leaves either undivided, cut, 

 or laciniated ; sometimes 3 in a whorl. Fl. spiked, nu- 

 merous, small, blue or purplish. 



1. V. officinalis. Common Vervain. 



Stamens four. Spikes slender, panicled. Leaves deeply 

 cut. Stem mostly solitary. 



V. officinalis. Linn. Sp. PI. 29. mild. v.]. 1 20. Fl. Br. 609. 

 Engl. Bot.v.W.t. 767. Curt. Lond.fasc. 1. 1. 41. fVoodv. suppl. 

 t.2l8. Hook. Scot. 1 90. Dreves Bilderb. t. 45 . Fl. Dan. t.628. 

 Hoffm. Germ. for 1 79 1 . 9. <. 2. Bull. Fr. <. 2 15. 



V. n. 219. Hall. Hist.v. 1.96. 



Verbena. Dorsten.Bot.292.f. Riv. Monop. Irr.t. 56. 



V. vulgaris. Rail Sijn. 236. 



V. communis. Ger. Em. 718./. 



V. mascula. Brunf. Herb.v. 1 . 1 19./. 



Verbenaca. Matth. Falgr. v. 2.399./. Corner. Epit. 797. f. 



By road sides, and in dry waste ground, or pastures, about vil- 

 lages. 



Perennial. Juhj. 



